The present invention disclosed herein relates to an optical communication device, and more particularly, to an optical communication device having a digital optical switch.
In recent, large capacity, high-speed, and high performance of an optical communication device are increasingly required. For example, examples of the optical communication system may include an optical communication system using a wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) method and an optical communication system using a reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) method. For example, in the optical communication system using the ROADM method, since several channels are connected to each other at the same time, utilization of a network can be improved, costs can be reduced, and a network structure can be simplified.
Optical switches are one of important elements constituting optical communication systems. An optical attenuator is well-known as an example of the optical switches. The optical attenuator is an optical device that adjusts an attenuation degree of an optical signal at the outside. For example, intensity of the optical signal may be attenuated through the optical attenuator by the external adjustment, or the intensity of the optical signal may not be changed.
However, as an optical communication industry is developed, the optical communication system may require optical switches having various functions. Thus, a lot of research with respect to the optical switches that can perform novel functions is being developed.